Refine by

Categories

Date

Crop Growth Articles

Your algae monitoring and control system is all set up, humming along efficiently, and the algae is growing well. Your solenoids are controlling the CO2 input so that your pH is always on target. Coolers (or heaters) are controlling your temperature. Maybe you even have automatic harvesting based on the density of your algae. But what happens if one of the devices breaks down? Pumps, valves, ...

Management and scheduling of irrigation water requires consideration of evapotranspiration, one of the most important hydrological variables. This study investigates the variations in the daily potential evapotranspiration (ET0), and its aerodynamic (ETa) and radiometric (ETr) components in three areas (western, central and eastern) of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region ...

Everyone who works in agriculture is aware of the basic lifecycle of crops: plants are seeded, they are nourished and they grow, they are harvested, and what is not consumed by (us) higher life forms is returned to the soil—where it is broken down through mineralization and by microorganisms so that it can be used to nourish the next cycle of crops. That relatively simple scenario is ...

The role of Potassium in metabolic processes such as protein synthesis and the movement of sugars within the plant is now well understood and recognised as crucial for maximising quality and yield. But it is now known Potassium also plays a significant role in helping crops resist disease and environmental stresses during winter dormancy and ensuring optimum supplies of Potassium to see crops ...

Wild cousins aren’t always appreciated at family gatherings. But when it comes to crops, the opposite is often true: Plant breeding has historically relied on genes from plants growing in the wild as a source of diversity that can be introduced into crop plants to produce new crop varieties that are more resilient, nutritious and productive than those currently cultivated. As human ...

Due to their natural origin, biopesticides are assumed to be less harmful to beneficial insects, including bees, and therefore their use has been widely encouraged for crop protection. However, there is little evidence to support this ingrained notion of the biopesticide safety to pollinators. As larval exposure is still largely unexplored in ecotoxicology and risk assessment on bees, we ...

Uncertainties caused by climate change and population explosion require suitable methods for estimating grain yield during the growing seasons. This paper evaluates the applicability of the AquaCrop model in the region of western Kenya. The objectives of the study were to: simulate the long-term maize crop yields for the region using AquaCrop model for variable climate scenarios, and estimate ...

Scarcity of water, major critical concern in arid areas, has led to the use of low–quality irrigation water in agriculture in most of arid climate areas. The quality of water used for agriculture has to be reduced to a sustainable level that is also adapted to the environment. This paper presents the performance of a pilot condensation irrigation (CI) solar system in Tunisia under arid ...

The demographers may have got it wrong. New projections say the population of the planet will not stabilise at 9 billion sometime this century. In fact, there is an 80% likelihood that, by 2100, it will reach at least 9.6 bn − and maybe rise as high as 12.3 bn. The latest data, published in the ...

A substantial and growing body of literature now exists on the socio–economic impacts of genetically engineered (GE) crops. While the bulk of literature has focused on the primary impacts of commercialised GE technology, in terms of changes in yields, costs and profitability, researchers have increasingly addressed a range of additional questions such as the distribution of impacts across groups, ...

We’ve touched on this before, but according to the Financial Times, this year’s bumper apple crop is going from strength to strength. Often an anxious time of year for cider makers, this years crop eases the supply pressures for manufacturers trying to keep pace with this rapid growth category, worth about £3bn and set to grow to circa £3.7bn by 2017, according to market ...

Effect on growth and reproduction potential of animal wastes viz., cow, goat, horse and a domestic waste (used tea dust) and their combinations to the earthworm, Eisenia fetida, was studied under laboratory conditions. The effect of above on growth aspects of Bhendi crop was compared with the normal compost individually under green house conditions. The effects on growth were assessed for ten ...

Reclaimed wastewater reuse for irrigation to crop plants is evaluated in a laboratory-scale experiment to assess growth and water saving potential from natural resources. A prototype laboratory-scale treatment plant was established for this purpose with suspended and attached growth configurations. Chakwal wheat variety was selected to examine growth parameters. The removal of chemical oxygen ...

With the increasing costs of fossil fuels, new methods of generating renewable fuels need to be researched and developed. This study was undertaken to assess the effects of irrigation frequency on crop growth and ethanol yield of sweet sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. Nine combinations of pre- and postanthesis irrigation frequencies triggered by 35, 50, or 65% depletion of plant-available ...

Increased biomass productivity could be achieved through double-cropping if extended growth duration could be realized with minimal reductions in growth efficiency relative to sole-cropping. To test this hypothesis, functional growth analysis was used to assess the relative importance of photosynthetic duration and efficiency in determining biomass production by sole-crop corn (Zea mays L.; SC) ...

Incorporating perennial grasses such as bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Fluegge) to diversify the conventional two-crop rotation of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) prevalent in the U.S. Southeast (SE) is advocated. However, little is reported on growth and development for cotton grown in rotation with perennial grasses. Our objectives were to compare plant ...

A generic crop model (STICS) was adapted (STICS–Grassland) to model growth, yield, and environmental impacts of grasslands in France. It is a semimechanistic model combining equations of physiological processes and mathematical relationships between processes in a daily time step. The Information et Suivi Objectif des Prairies (ISOP; Grassland Information and Objective Survey) application was ...

This decision tree offers advice on which crops to grow for different non-food markets. Summary The crop chooser is a simple tool that helps growers understand the risks and opportunities associated with diversifying into non-food crops. By deciding on the value, risk, level of management and investment you are willing to accept the crop chooser will help identify ...

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) plantations generate a large quantity of by-products, such as empty fruit bunches (EFB) and palm fronds. These by-products are very difficult to decompose in natural condition. Vermicomposting of these by-products would be able to provide some useful nutrients for crop growth. There was no information available on the composting condition of these oil palm ...

This article introduces the FAO crop model AquaCrop. It simulates attainable yields of major herbaceous crops as a function of water consumption under rainfed, supplemental, deficit, and full irrigation conditions. The growth engine of AquaCrop is water-driven, in that transpiration is calculated first and translated into biomass using a conservative, crop-specific parameter: the biomass water ...